Kickoff time for Syracuse football vs. preseason top-25 Tennessee is on earlier side

If you're heading to Atlanta for Syracuse football against Tennessee to open the 2025 season, and you enjoy taligating, you'll be indulging in that activity on the early side.

These two Orange-clad schools will go toe to toe starting at noon EST on Saturday, Aug. 30, with television coverage on ABC, per a post on X from college football insider Brett McMurphy on Tuesday.

This should prove a fun opening-week match-up for the 'Cuse and its second-year head coach Fran Brown. The Orange program, in 2024, went 10-3 overall, won its bowl game and finished No. 20 in the final Associated Press top-25 poll.

The Volunteers, out of the Southeastern Conference, also sported a 10-3 mark last year. Tennessee reached the 12-team College Football Playoff and resided at No. 9 in the final AP top-25 ballot. Looking ahead to the 2025 term, multiple national media outlets view the Volunteers as a preseason top-25 team.

In their all-time series together, per SU Athletics, Syracuse football is 0-3 versus Tennessee, and the last time that they faced off was during the 2001 campaign. By the way, here's the rest of the 'Cuse 2025 schedule, which is shaping up as a daunting docket.

Syracuse football has a fun, challenging first game in the 2025 stanza.

The Orange will get an extremely early barometer of how the upcoming campaign might go when the 'Cuse goes toe to toe with the Vols in the season opener.

Tennessee, as I've discussed in a few columns, has a different-looking quarterback room for 2025. The squads' starter a stanza ago, Nico Iamaleava, transferred to Big Ten Conference member UCLA, while one of the Bruins' signal-callers, Joey Aguilar, ironically decided to transfer to Tennessee.

Another one of the Orange's top-flight foes in 2025 is Notre Dame, which advanced to the College Football Playoff title game this past term, where the Fighting Irish lost to Ohio State. A few days ago, SU Athletics noted in a release that the 'Cuse contest at Notre Dame on Saturday, Nov. 22, will commence at 3:30 pm and air on NBC.

All-time, Syracuse football is just 3-8 against the Fighting Irish, according to SU Athletics. Late last month, Notre Dame junior quarterback Steve Angeli, a three-star transfer prospect, said on social media that he had signed with the Orange, bolstering the competition for the team's starting signal-caller in the upcoming 2025 season.